Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Education and Culture today discussed blogs with Tobias Billström of the Moderate Party. Due to the story with SVT journalist Per Gudmundson who had to quit blogging, Billström had asked Pagrotsky:

> if he thought that freedom of speech does not include employees of a public service company?

> if he thinks that individual journalists employed in public service companies can not express views in public, even if they are not in direct connection to the work that they do as employees at SVT?

I listened in to the debate and to summarize briefly, Pagrotsky declined any responsibility for the conflict. These issues are regulated in collective agreements between the employer and the union, and therefore he referred to the board of SVT. In other words, in the name of impartiality, it is ok for a public service company to issue a gag order on its employees. I didn’t really expect him to say anything else.